Dan Fienberg

There's a lot of dudes-being-dudes banter, without any "Bro is me" self-pity that sometimes can bog the genre down. Led by Chris Distefano, Mark Gessner, Ruy Iskandar and Andrew Schulz, the cast has an easy rapport that carries Benders along even if, after three episodes, I can't quite isolate distinguishing characteristics for all of the guys.

Rob Owen

Mike Hale

There’s nothing in the early episodes of Benders that’s as explosively funny as any random 10 minutes of “Louie” or “Curb.” But it can impart a sort of calming buzz--if you lower your expectations for laughs in the same way that the show diminishes expectations that its characters will achieve any kind of triumph.

Brian Lowry

David Wiegand

None of it is believable. If the show’s structure were obviously satirical, there would be credible room for over-the-top, but the show is meant as a straight-ahead sitcom, and the story lines all sound exactly like what a bunch of guys would come up with in a college dorm room, rank with the smell of soiled laundry, flatulence and pot-induced tall tales.